Our annual observance of the Lenten season begins on Ash Wednesday (this year falling on 5 March), with its emphasis on repentance and contrition in the face of human sin.  Since the season is one of discipline, restraint and self-examination, exuberant music is out of place (we’ll have to wait until Easter for that!), so the organ music and the manner of hymn playing will reflect this.  The postludes, for example, are chorales (hymns of the Lutheran church, whose texts relate to the day’s theme), rather than larger concert works.  This music serves to conclude each service with beauty and definition but without any sense of extrovert celebration, which would be out of place in the Lenten observance.  Also, the word “alleluia” is not heard during Lent, as it is a word of Easter jubilation.

     The five Sundays in Lent explore various aspects of God’s call to repentance, and the Gospel themes include Christ’s temptation in the wilderness, the driving out of the dumb spirit, God’s call to holiness, and Christ as both Priest and Victim.  The focus on God’s calling of His people to repentance is first heard on Ash Wednesday, and continued on the first Lenten Sunday with the further reading of Jesus’ temptation after forty days of fasting in the wilderness.  Because of this, we will sing two particular hymns on the Wednesday and again on the Sunday, namely “The glory of these forty days” and “Lord, who throughout these forty days”, as this is a wonderful opportunity to sing each hymn in midst of different services with their own particular focus.  The former hymn has a text dating to the tenth century, and the words of the latter hymn originally appeared in a hymnal for children in 1873, yet both texts enumerate the ideas of fasting and temptation in a distinctive yet complementary manner.  The fourth Sunday in Lent is traditionally known as “Laetare” (rejoice) Sunday, from the first word of the Latin introit for the day.  On this day the strictness of the Lenten fast is somewhat relaxed, as this is the midpoint of the Lenten journey to Easter.  Purple hangings are often replaced by rose colour, itself a shade that falls “halfway” between Lenten purple and Easter white.

     Some of the great hymns for Lent are also some of the most familiar and well loved:  “Dear Lord and Father of mankind” (with a text by John Greenleaf Whittier), “O for a closer walk with God”, “Turn back, o man, forswear thy foolish ways”, and the well-known “My faith looks up to thee” all explore different aspects of the Lenten message.  The organ music also illustrates the many aspects of Lenten devotion, whether personal prayer or corporate liturgy.  Music based on many of the hymn tunes provides the listener with the opportunity to hear a familiar tune in an artistic and more complex musical garb, and the great repertoire of the 18th-century masters provide a comprehensive musical canvas for the Lenten observance.

     Next month’s music column will focus on the great drama of Holy Week, and the joyous celebration of Easter,

The service of sung Evensong is a hallmark of traditional Anglican worship, being heard in it’s most beautiful form in the choral versions offered in the cathedrals and college chapels of England. The psalms, the evening canticles Magnificat and Nunc dimittis, and well-known eventide hymns all combine to create a service of quiet contemplation, a perfect foil to the often chaotic events of daily life, and a fitting way to conclude one’s busy day.

A fine commentary on Evensong comes from the Rev. Michael Till, from 1970-1981 the Dean of King’s College Chapel, Cambridge, England:

“If you are prepared to join in this turning towards God, you will find this is a Service in which you can join, though perhaps in ways that are unfamiliar. Here is a liturgical, architectural, and musical space into which, without fretting too much about the words, you may gather the preoccupations and anxieties of your own life and hold them together with a recollection of the god whose acts we celebrate. But many have found that once they have quietly offered the preoccupations which are chattering in their minds, they are free silently to go on to offer to God all that they are.”

Evensong services at Trinity Church combine hymns, congregational settings of the canticles, and organ music to give utterance to this most distinctive of Anglican liturgies, and our first Evensong will take place on Friday, 11 October, at 5:00 PM.

The music of the historic Anglican church, like the beliefs themselves, reflect the practices and traditions of a reformed catholic faith. Although the actual church was founded in 1534 by King Henry VIII, its music draws from European traditions of both pre- and post-reformation times, as well as having developed music for its own particular forms of worship. Hymns, music for choir, and works for organ form the heart of the Anglican musical identity.

At Trinity Church, congregational singing is the focus of our music, with the hymns, Mass settings, and canticles all being found in the Hymnal 1940. This book has long been acknowledged as the finest hymnal of the twentieth century, and all historical musical styles are well represented: Medieval plainchant, Reformation-era chorales and Psalm-tones, well-known Victorian hymns, and tunes from the early 1900’s are all found in this most versatile book. Numerous hymns are sung during Matins, Mass, and Evensong, as well as musical settings of the texts of the canticles and Mass Ordinary, all of which shows a high level of congregational participation in the service, something that the Reformers valued highly.

The organ music heard in the service occurs at the start (to set a mood of prayer and contemplation), the Offertory (for additional reflection following the sermon) and at the conclusion (to usher the congregation out into the world). These works are selected from the great heritage of music specifically written for the organ, and from the hands of such composers as Bach, Couperin, Mendelssohn, and many others. At Trinity, such pieces are often ones in which one of the hymn tunes used in worship can be heard as a solo melody, thus giving an additional “hearing” of the hymn in a new musical guise.

The music heard at Trinity Church illuminates the service in ways that are both gentle and reflective, as well as extrovert and proclamatory, living proof that the “beauty of holiness” can be found in a small neighborhood parish church as well as in a great cathedral.